Members and friends present introduced themselves, while the databasewas passed around to be updated. The minutes of the August meeting atthe University of Denver were unanimously approved. (Motion: Drenchko,second: Papacosta.)================================================================CHAIR'S REPORT:Announcements:1. Future AAPT meetings were announced so that the committee could planfor future sessions:Summer Univ. of Neb. August 1998Winter Anaheim, CA January 1999Joint Atlanta, GA March 1999 APS CentennialSummer San Antonio August 1999Winter Orlando, FL January 2000Summer Ontario, Canada July 2000Winter San Diego, CA January 2001 with Astron. Soc.

2. The incoming Chair (Joe Drenchko) was introduced, as well as the newcommittee members (Bernadine Cook and Ed Finn). G. Ramsey thanked theoutgoing members (Marcelo Alonso and David Gewanter) for their service.

3. AAPT Executive Committee Announcementsa. Deadlines for workshops and sessions have been moved up toprovide more time for planning, which requires committees to plantwo meetings ahead instead of one. Deadlines for winter meetingswill be May 1st prior to the meeting and for summer meetings,willbe October 15th prior to that meeting.b. The new fee structure for workshops and contributed papers($35) was announced. Also members giving invited talks will paythe same abstract fee as for contributed papers.c. Workshop with low enrollments at the deadline date listed inthe Announcer will be canceled.d. Each member may present a maximum of one invited talk and onecontributed talk at a meeting. The name of the presenter will belisted first in a multi-author paper.e. The sponsor or presenter of a poster paper must be registeredfor the meeting and be present during the poster session.f. Members are strongly encouraged to submit abstractselectronically to reduce the AAPT staff workload.g. Only overhead projectors will be provided free at papersessions. There will be a fee for any other media equipment.h. AAPT should move toward standardizing all meetings such thatworkshops will be held on Saturday and Sunday, while oral andposter sessions will be restricted to Monday through Wednesday.

4. Upcoming International Conferences:a. XI International Conference of Women Engineers andScientists,Tokyo, Japan,1999.b. Hands-on Experiments in Physics Education, Duisburg, Germany,23-28 August 1998- for information see:http://www.uni-duisburg.de/FB10/DDPH/girep/girepeng.htmlc. IV International Teachers of Physics Conference, Colonia delSacramento, Uruguay, 21-26 September 1998- for information:http://www.geocities.com/researchtriangle/9259/apfu.htmd. International Conference on STS: Science and SocietyTechnological Turn, Tokyo, Japan, 16-22 March 1998e. Teaching Conference, India, Oct., 1998: contact Simon GeorgeThe Chair encouraged members and friends to submit full information oninternational conferences to him as soon as it is available, so that itcan be published on the committee website and the AAPT Announcer.

5. A summary of the VI InterAmerican Conference (Argentina) isavailable on its website-http://www.cabbat1.cnea.edu.ar/iacpe/iacpei.htmThe next IACPE meeting will be in Brazil in the year 2000. Moredetailed information will be circulated by the committee as it becomesavailable.

6. IOP Physics website - service and information provided by theInstitute of Physics in Great Britain. http://physicsweb.org

7. A letter from Sugimoto of the Stray Cats was received by the Chair.He sent a copy of a book of demonstrations in Japanese and requestedthat we try to find a suitable translator. The hope is to distributethe book throughout the English speaking nations for widerdissemination. Clarence Bennett indicated that he knew a suitablecandidate and would check into the matter. Alex Dickison suggestedthat this could possibly be funded through the AAPT Venture Fund.

9. Contacts around the world: the present Chair will distribute thislist in an appropriate manner as soon as it is updated. Also see NewBusiness.

10. In the interest of interaction and efficiency, we have combined thethree follow-up meetings, (US-China-Japan, InterAmerican and US-Danish-Scandinavian) into one. There are many commonalities between thesegroups, including most of the attendees. Time will be left at the endfor the separate groups to discuss plans for future meetings, etc.

11. Prof. Xingkai Luo of Guilin, China has indicated an interest inbringing his group to an AAPT meeting for a demonstration show, similarto the Stray Cats from Japan. He and G. Ramsey are working together tocoordinate this visit. Tentatively, the summer meeting of 2000 is beingdiscussed.

Summary of completed projects/Status of continuing projects:

Copies of the 1997 Committee Annual Report were distributed. Highlightsof some accomplishments:1) The committee data base and e-mail lists have been updated.2) Five Fuller Fund awards were made. A list is in the Annual Report.3) The Announcer has been publishing our list of internationalconferences.4) A list of seven potential plenary speakers of internationalreputation has been submitted to the Executive Board. They are listedin the University of Maryland minutes.5) Letters of appreciation were sent to each of the Stray Cats fromJapan for their excellent show at the University of Maryland meeting.6) Our list of international contacts around the world has grown totwenty different countries being represented. If anyone knows of aninternational colleague who is interested in sharing information aboutteaching conferences and programs in their country, please inform thechair. See New Business for further information.7) Nominations have been submitted for consideration to serve on thecommittee and these have been forwarded to the Nominations Committee.8) A number of US delegates attended the VI IACPE Conference inArgentina. Highlights were given at a session at this meeting.9) The web has been updated with Minutes and workshop guidelines.===============================================================Reports on New Orleans Sessions:

1. Richard Reimann made an announcement about an internationalconference in Moscow State University in June, 1998: "Modern Problemsand Achievements in Undergraduate Physics". Contact him forinformation at: rreimann@atlas.idbsu.edu

2. Dean Zollman briefed the committee on an international project on"Scientific and Cultural Aspects of the Bicycle: Investigations withInternational Teams Using Interactive Technologies". Five USuniversities and a similar European contingent will be participating.Contact Dean, Bob Fuller or David Winch for more information. Talkswill be given on this subject at the New Orleans and Nebraska AAPTmeetings.

3. Laszlo Baksay mentioned that the Germans are interested in having ajoint conference with Hungary and the USA dealing with teachereducation with the theme of Creativity in Physics. Specifics are inthe planning stage. He also announced the centennial celebration ofLeo Szillard at the APS/AAPT joint meeting in Columbus, Ohio in April.There are four invited speakers scheduled.================================================================OLD BUSINESS:

1. G. Ramsey updated the committee on our contacts around the world. Heinvited members and guests to submit names and e-mail addresses ofpotential international colleagues who would be interested in sharingphysics teaching information in their area with AAPT. He stressed theimportance in sharing information internationally, and that one of theaims of the committee is to provide this information to the AAPTmembership. So far, teachers from twenty countries are represented andduplication of representatives is fine.

2. Web page: The following recommendations were made as to items whichcould be included on the page:(1) current list of contacts around the world(2) invitation for volunteers to submit their names to serve on thecommittee and a point of contact(3) brief summaries of our participation in international meetingsIf there are further ideas, please notify the Chair.

3. The committee has submitted names of speakers for plenary sessionsat the national AAPT meetings. It was suggested that persons submittingnames stay in charge of contacting these individuals periodically foravailability at our meetings and to search for topics which would beappropriate to our membership. In particular, if these individualswill be visiting the US during one of our meetings, this presents astrong case for scheduling the speaker at the meeting. Note that thespeakers are chosen by the Area Chairs and Executive Board at themeeting(s) prior to the scheduled talk.================================================================NEW BUSINESS:

1. A request for suggestions regarding sessions to sponsor at futureAAPT meetings was made by the Chair. The following ideas weresubmitted:a. Take fives by international attendeesb. Use of Multimedia and Information Technologies (web) in teachingphysics throughout the world - joint sponsorship with MediaCommittee, as in Denverc. Teaching physics to students where English is their secondlanguaged. G. Aubrecht and H. Manos will sponsor a session in Anaheim onPhysics Teaching Around the World: Personal Perspectives.e. We are still planning to sponsor a reception for internationalvisitors at the San Antonio meeting (summer, 1999) due to itsclose proximity with Mexico.

3. Alex Dickerson briefed the committee on the status of the FullerFund. It currently has $10,000 and is able to fund eight membershipsper year. Eligible countries are listed on the web. Nominations shouldbe made by August and the chosen individuals are notified. Last year,five nominations were selected, but only one responded. He solicitedfurther nominations. If anyone wishes to nominate someone from one ofthese countries, forms are available through AAPT or are able to bedownloaded from the committee website:http://www.unl.edu/physics/cie.html

4. New contacts initiative (G. Ramsey) - In order to expand ourinternational contacts and receive timely information aboutconferences, I initiated a project where each member is responsible foran area of the world (or set of countries) in which they areresponsible for gathering this information. This should be related totheir specific interests. The committee members have received their"assignments" and should report their information to the committeeChair, who will forward it to the appropriate people. I havevolunteered to coordinate this project, even after Joe takes over asChair.

5. It was suggested that the AAPT office identify participants fromoutside the USA, so that the Chair can invite them to the committeemeeting and other sponsored events.

6. G. Ramsey, the outgoing Chair, thanked the members and friends ofthe committee for their hard work and support during his two years asChair. He introduced the new Chair, Joe Drenchko and wished him luck.

7. Joe recommended that friends and members thank Gordon for his"outstanding" work as Chair.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m.===============================================================I wish to thank Pan Papacosta for taking notes, which enabled me towrite these minutes. The accuracy is my responsibility, but the creditfor the work during the meeting goes to Pan.